Katana
by Morello
Summary: This is the back story of the "Before Crisis" Turk Katana, who I call Kit. Also featuring appearances by a young Zack Fair, Sephiroth, and various Turks.
1. The Arrival of ShinRa

**Here I go again starting new stories before I've finished old ones. Ah well, I'm too old to change now.**

**I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my stories. I've been ill, and am very behind on replies, but I really appreciate all feedback. **

**This is my version of the back story of the "Before Crisis" Turk Katana, who I call Kit. It was supposed to be a one shot, but it grew. At least I can promise this one will progress quickly, as five out of six chapters are already written and I know how it ends. **

**Most of what is officially known of Katana's past is summarised here:**

_Katana had something of a reputation in his hometown, Gongaga. When he was younger, a friend of his was kidnapped. To get him back, Katana went to rescue him alone. The story has it that Katana arrived at the place his friend was being held, and single-handedly defeated all the operatives in the area. Katana_ himself was put into prison. His only way out came from the Turks, who recruited him, telling him that he would be free to leave if he would offer his formidable talent to their service. He did, and has been with the Turks for many years. Compared with most of the other Turks, he is a senior officer. _ **(From Gunshot Romance - a great "Before Crisis" site) **_

_**That got me wondering about who the friend was, who kidnapped him and why. **_

* * *

**Katana**

**Chapter One**

**The Arrival of ShinRa**

Their mothers were good friends, they were born four hours apart, and if Kit threw a stone from his loft window he could get Cal's attention by hitting the wooden shutters of his bedroom on the ground floor of the house opposite. People in Gongaga called them the twins, and strangers would have believed it if they'd seen them together tearing through the muddy streets, black hair tousled and blue eyes shining with mischief, both wearing clothes that were either patched or freshly torn. When they were small only Kit's glasses made it easy to tell them apart unless you knew them well.

No matter that Cal's father was the mayor and Kit's widowed mother a poor farmer who also worked as the village midwife; there was little in the way of hierarchy in Gongaga. The mayor's house was only bigger than the others because its ground floor contained the village meeting hall. Apart from the expensive woven silk kilims that decorated the houses and were passed from family to family upon marriage, few Gongagans owned much of financial value. All the village children attended the same school in the mornings, and in the afternoons the boys, along with a handful of interested girls, learned to fight with traditional katana in the small dojo near the weapon shop under the expert tuition of Eli Swift, who also owned the store. By Midgar standards Kit was poor, but, having no comparison, he didn't know that he was poor, and his childhood was happy.

For the first seven years of their lives Kit and Cal's life in Gongaga followed a pattern that had existed in the village largely unchanged since their nomadic ancestors had first settled the area centuries before. Then, on a bright autumn day in 1983, one of the big boys ran into the junior classroom of the little village school yelling excitedly, "Trucks!"

There was a moment of hush before the class burst into a hubbub of thrilled exclamations. Their teacher ordered the excited children to form a line by the door of the classroom. As always, Kit and Cal paired up. "Is it ShinRa?" Kit whispered. Cal grinned. "Yes. Look – Miss Thorn is giving out the flags. I can't wait!"

When each child had been provided with one of the 'welcome to Gongaga' flags they'd had ready for nearly a month now, since no one seemed to know exactly when work on the new mako reactor would begin, Miss Thorn led her short crocodile of children out of the school house. Lining the dirt road to the north of the town, the children waved and cheered as the lorries rumbled past. Kit was a bit frightened of the noise and the sheer size of the huge metal machines, but he didn't let Cal see that he was afraid.

"Pop says there'll be a big festival when the reactor opens," Cal told him when the trucks had vanished into the dust. "Goat stew and everything. And someone important from Midgar will come."

"Goat stew!" Kit smiled. "Yum."

When he got home, Kit told his mother all about it, but she didn't seem to be her usual cheerful self, muttering something about schools spreading ShinRa propaganda.

"What's a propaganda?" asked Kit.

"A well-behaved daddy goose," his mother replied, her smile returning. She gathered him close and kissed him, and he pretended to struggle.

"Cal says we'll have goat stew when they've finished," Kit told her.

"Humph. 'Cal says'! All I hear from you is 'Cal says', and all poor Esther hears is "Kit says'. Joined at the hip you and Caleb Leaman, since the day you were born. And don't you worry about goat stew. We'll have it at harvest, same as always. We'll be waiting years if we wait for the reactor. Nothing like that gets built in a day."

"Years!" Kit exclaimed. "But what about the lelectricity? They said hot water from the tap, and lights and – and _televisions_." He breathed the last word reverently. Cal's uncle knew someone in Midgar with a television. It was like the travelling cinema that came once a month and set up in the square, but it was in a small box you could put inside your house, and watch all the time!

"We've done all right without so far," his mother said, and her voice wasn't quite back to normal, but almost. "I daresay we can wait a bit longer for the mako miracle to bless us."

x

After the initial excitement died down, Kit's mother was proved right about the length of time it would take to build a reactor. The road east, linking Gongaga to the port at Nymund Bay, was widened and metalled, becoming the first designated highway on the whole continent. ShinRa's builders lived in a town of trailers and tents that swiftly grew up along the road near Gongaga and around the northern edge of the reactor site. Occasionally men would come to the village, but when they discovered that Gongaga boasted only one small inn and that the local girls largely kept themselves to themselves, they tended to say on site where at least they had TV, plenty of alcohol, and a few enterprising whores who had followed them from Midgar to keep them entertained.

The construction work went on all day and most nights, although the Mayor of Gongaga, Cal's father Samuel Leaman, eventually managed to negotiate one night of guaranteed silence a week. Even with almost continual building the corn was already beginning to ripen in the fields nearly a year after the first trucks had arrived by the time the foundations of the reactor had been laid and the deep mako wells dug out.

One sultry evening in the late summer of 1984 the heat was oppressive enough to make sleep impossible for Kit. His bedroom was a raised platform under the tiled dome of the roof; stifling in this weather. When his mother called up the ladder to tell him that she had to go out he stuck his shaggy head over the edge of the platform and asked, "Who is it? Mary Heath?"

"No - Tabitha Fair. She's a little early. Since you're wide awake, how about a hand with carrying water?"

"All right!" Kit agreed happily, keen to get out of the stuffy loft and looking forward to a midnight adventure. He'd assisted his mother at a few births recently, carrying and heating water, bringing clean cloths and looking after the new medical kit that had come all the way from Midgar, the ShinRa logo bright red and beautifully printed on its white plastic surface. The only thing he wasn't allowed to touch was the mako crystal in its beaded leather pouch, handed down to his mother from her mother, and hers before that. Kit knew that boys couldn't become midwives and he sometimes wondered whether his mother wished he'd been a girl, but whenever he asked her she would smile and kiss him and say, "I want you exactly how you are and not so much as an eyelash different". He knew that she meant it, but he still liked to ask, just to hear it again.

Kit took the water bucket and went out to the well. He drew up the heavy well bucket as quietly as he could. He poured the water into his own bucket and watched for a moment, admiring the way the surface turned liquid silver in the moonlight. A sudden dull boom reverberated through the whole village, shivering the water and shaking the ground. Another followed moments later, and another - pile drivers from the construction site. Kit was glad he was already up and about – if that noise went on all night no one was going to get much sleep anyway.

When he reached the Fairs' house his mother was walking with Tabitha who was pacing restlessly, her hands on her belly, her eyes full of that intense look of internalised concentration Kit had seen before in women about to give birth. Kit's mother looked up as he entered, and another resounding boom shook the house. "What a time to start with all that row!" she said. "Couldn't they have waited until morning?"

Tabitha Fair managed a smile. "Some things – won't wait," she said, breathlessly. "I'm glad you're here, Judith."

Kit poured the water into a large pan on the stove. Jacob Fair, a tall, handsome man with mild blue eyes and an easy manner, nodded his thanks, but Kit could see that he was worried. "It's early," he said to Kit's mother. "It shouldn't be happening yet."

"Not very early," Kit's mother reassured him. "Just an impatient baby. Three weeks is all right. And it's already as big as many that are full term." She looked to check that the water was heating and turned to Kit. "This will take a while," she said. "You get home. I doubt I'll be back much before dawn."

"Perhaps – I should go out for a while –" Jacob began, but Tabitha's glare silenced him. "You are going nowhere, Jacob Fair!" she told him. "You were happy enough to start this – you can – uh – bloody well stay and see it through – ow – holy –"

His mother shot Kit a warning glance and he fled before the cursing got out of hand.

The sounds from the construction site had ceased for the moment. As he passed his best friend's house on the way home, Kit knocked gently on the shutters of Cal's bedroom just in case the heat or the sound of the pile drivers had woken him. There was no response, so he was heading for his own house, when Cal's whisper stopped him. "Kit! What're you doing?" Cal opened the window wide and jumped down into the street, barefoot, but dressed in trousers and an old t-shirt.

"Tabitha Fair's baby," Kit said.

"Gross! Did you see it come out?"

"No – it hasn't come yet."

"Have you ever seen one come out though?"

Knowing that the sight of blood made Kit feel faint, his mother had always made sure that he was well out of the way before the actual delivery took place, but Kit wasn't about to admit that to Cal. "Almost. It's the same as with goats and cows, really."

"Ugh."

"Yeah, but – they're nice, though, after."

"What – cows and goats?"

"Babies."

Cal made a face. "My sister isn't nice. All yelling and poop. Keeps us awake half the night usually, and then tonight with all this noise going on, guess what?"

"What?" Kit asked.

"Miriam – fast asleep and smiling, blowing these little bubbles sometimes…"

Kit smiled, knowing how much Cal doted on baby Miriam in spite of all his claims about what a pain she was.

Another hollow boom made even the heat-heavy air appear to tremble. "Let's go and watch," Cal said, ever the leader in their escapades. Together they ran through the empty streets of the village, through the sparse woodlands beyond and across a short stretch of moonlit heath, before scrambling up the high earth bank built to protect Gongaga from the worst of the noise and dust from the construction site. ShinRa had promised to build the bank – it was in the plans approved by the mayor – but in the end it had been erected by the villagers themselves, aided by one small, rather rusty mechanical digger reluctantly provided by the ShinRa site manager after considerable pressure from Cal's father, backed by a delegation from the village.

From the top of the bank the view of the site was breathtaking. The entire area was enclosed by high chain-link fencing with razor wire along the top, sharp-looking as the claws on the striped huldercat skin draped over the couch in Eli Swift's weapons shop. Beyond the fence, in the greenish glow of huge floodlights, moved vast machines; diggers with caterpillar treads and toothed scoops like the maws of monsters, and gigantic earthmovers whose wheels were each higher than a grown man – even a tall one like Jacob Fair. Above the floodlights the towers of three pile drivers and the right angle forms of several cranes were silhouetted against the moonlit sky. On every machine the ShinRa logo was boldly painted. Kit knew that in the daytime the logos would be bright red, but in this weird under-water light they appeared almost black. Among the machines men were working, all clad in identical protective suits, hard hats and ear-protectors, goggles obscuring their faces.

"I saw a welding robot out there once," Cal said. "Like fireworks, but so bright you couldn't look at it."

"Cool. Wonder what it's like in Midgar?"

"Pop says when they finish building there it will be a whole city in the sky."

"Yeah," Kit nodded. "Ma, too. She said it wouldn't be much fun for the people underneath, out of the sun."

Cal scoffed. "There won't be people underneath! They're building everything on top – houses and shops and schools – everything. Underneath will just be for – you know – storage, or pipes and things. The plate on top is going to be so big that thousands of people will live there. Thousands! And they need people – for every kind of job. Doctors and teachers and people who look after the money, and security and engineers… I'm going to work there one day. I'll have a house with TV, and I'll go to work on the train, and – and I'll have one of those phones that you can carry around in your pocket! Did I tell you the site manager had one, when Pop went to see him about the digger? He said, "I'll have to call for authorisation" and he made a phone call to Midgar, right there, standing outside in the middle of the site!"

"Yes," said Kit, impressed all over again. "You told me. But – there'll still be farmers here, won't there? And if you leave – and Jude Heart was talking about leaving, and some of the others – who'll look after the village?"

"There are hardly any monsters in the hills, and there hasn't been any trouble with the other villages for years. Anyway, ShinRa has security – like the guards on this site. They won't let anyone or anything attack Gongaga anymore – not when we'll be so close to a mako reactor. That's what Jude wants to be – a ShinRa security guard. Or he said he'd read about a new programme called SOLDIER, where you can train to an even higher level. He's definitely going to Midgar, and I want to as well. You have to come too. You can't just stay here and be a boring farmer. You're good with a katana – I know Eli thinks you're the best, though he doesn't say so. It would be more fun if we went together. Two ShinRa SOLDIERs!"

"Hm. I'd rather be… I don't know… Something like – well, you know that film that came here just after first sowing – _The Building of a Dream_? About how they designed Midgar? I'd like to be able to do something like that. Be an architect or something. Make things."

"Well, you can draw."

"I guess. I could – " Kit's eyes widened as he noticed the hammer of one of the pile drivers beginning to rise. "Cover your ears!" he cried. The two boys hunched down, hands tight over their ears as another series of thunderous thumps reverberated through the ground, sending trickles of earth skittering down both sides of the mound. When it was over they looked at each other, both laughing.

"If you're an architect, do you get to use those machines?" Cal asked.

"I reckon you might."

"Cool job!" Cal said. "That's what you should do then."

"Maybe," Kit nodded.

They stayed out in the warm night, watching the magnificent, thrilling machines working, until the moon set. When Kit got home he found that his mother still hadn't returned from the Fairs' house, but long labours were common enough with first births and he put himself to bed without undue worry.

In the morning though, his mother was unusually silent as she stirred his breakfast porridge on the stove.

"Is the baby okay?" Kit asked, concerned.

"Yes. He's a boy – doing well. Strong baby. Looks like his father. They've called him Zachary. But poor Tabitha –"

"Did she die?" Kit knew his mother prided herself on never having lost a mother in childbirth yet, unlike most of the midwives in neighbouring villages, who, nonetheless, sneered at her adoption of the latest medical advances from the eastern continent as 'unnatural'.

"No, love. She's alive, and she'll stay that way. But it was a hard birth. I had to use the mako crystal and the ShinRa drugs, and I only stopped the bleeding after a long time. I think – well, I think it's likely that Zachary will be her only child."

"Oh. Like me, then." As an only child Kit was something of an oddity in Gongaga. Cal had three older sisters and baby Miriam, Jude Heart was one of seven; four or five children in a family was the norm.

"Yes, just like you," his mother said with a smile that was only a little too bright. "Although you and Cal might as well be brothers, the amount of time you spend together." She set Kit's porridge on the table and watched him fondly as he wolfed it down. "I don't know where you put it all," she said, as he scraped the bowl clean and asked for seconds. "You must have hollow legs. Either that or you're about to grow again. It's a good thing Jude's mother passed on those trousers, or you'd be running out of clothes. But then, your dad was tall."

Kit looked at his mother quickly, then away. She rarely volunteered information about his father, killed in a farming accident when he was barely three. He could tell that she was already upset about Tabitha Fair, so he only nodded, and added the new knowledge to his small but precious store.


	2. The Opening

**A few familiar characters appear. **

**Lex is an OC Turk from one of my other stories. **

**The Opening**

Kit grew fast. By the time he was ten he was a good head taller than Cal. When he hugged his mother, he could rest his chin on the top of her head. Eli Swift watched Kit's progress in the dojo with growing approval. The boy's height didn't seem to slow him down or impede his fluid movements. Already he was using an adult katana and Eli was pairing him with some of the older boys in sparring matches – Ben Gale and the Payton twins. The day before the Gongaga reactor was officially due to be opened, Kit managed to beat all three of them - much to their chagrin and Cal's delight.

"Told you!" Cal exclaimed, trotting beside Kit on their way home after training. "You're the best in the village!"

"I grew early, that's all," Kit replied, uncomfortable with compliments.

"No – you were always good," Cal said. "Did you see all those security guards coming in last night for the ceremony tomorrow? My pa says being in ShinRa security is like being in an army. You get training in fitness, and all different kinds of weapons. We should try to talk to some of them – see how old you have to be to join up."

"Older than ten, anyway," Kit said. "But, yeah, we should talk to them. Ask them what it's like in Midgar. Jude Heart heard that the President will be coming in a helicopter! Wonder what it's like to fly?"

"I want to drive an army truck," Cal said.

"I'd like to fly. Remember in that film about Midgar – you could see the whole city from above? They must have taken that from a helicopter. Like being a bird. I wonder -"

"The ShinRa guards use swords _and_ guns," Cal interrupted. "They're the best-trained soldiers on the planet – and the new SOLDIERs will be even better than that! Jude's signing up for SOLDIER as soon as his pa will let him. He says no one will be able to beat a SOLDIER."

"What about Wutai? Eli says no one beats a ninja from Wutai."

Cal wrinkled his nose. "Just coz he trained in Wutai. _We_ used to fight off the Wutai tribes, way back – when they were on this continent, too. Bet ShinRa guards could beat a ninja. You be a ninja, and I'll be ShinRa, yeah?"

"Okay." Kit executed one of Eli's Wutaian katas and then fell into a low crouch, hands raised in the dragon guard.

"Surrender to the might of the ShinRa!" Cal cried.

"Never! For the honour of Wutai!" Kit replied, springing to attack. The two boys play-fought all the way home, both claiming to be victorious by the time they reached Kit's door.

"See you at the opening ceremony tomorrow, up there with all the VIPs!" Kit said. Knowing his friend was rather nervous about having to sit on the raised stage with the rest of his family and the president of ShinRa himself, he added, "It'll be okay."

"Yeah. I don't have to say anything, at least. Hannah's got to give flowers to Mrs. Shinra. She's been worrying about her dress for weeks!"

"Hannah – in a dress!" Kit laughed. Cal chuckled. His third sister was a notorious tomboy who would rather be training with the boys in the dojo than learning to weave and sew like her sisters and most of their friends.

"I know. She'll look so weird!" A little silence fell between them as they contemplated the momentous day to come, then Cal said, "See you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah."

Kit waited until Cal had run across the way to his own house and then went in for his supper, very glad that he wasn't the mayor's son and would be able to watch the ceremony from the safety of the crowd.

x

The president of ShinRa was a big, middle-aged man, with a determined face and a self-confident air. His complexion was rather florid and he was clearly fond of his food, but it was still apparent that he'd been handsome in his youth. His pale, golden-haired wife was as beautiful as the rumours claimed. She stood beside the president, smiling and gracious. Next to her, his hand in hers, the Shinra heir, four-year-old Rufus, regarded the crowd out of solemn blue eyes. Kit's eyes were on Cal and his family, seated in a line across the left side of the stage. Cal's father was wearing the mayoral sash, woven with gold thread. His mother wore her best dress, its wide skirts sewn with bands of multi-coloured ribbons, while the three girls, and even baby Miriam, wore traditional red. Oddly, Hannah didn't look weird in her dress, with little white flowers in her long brown hair. She actually looked quite pretty. Cal looked completely unlike himself, in his smart black trousers, starched white shirt and embroidered waistcoat. Kit could tell he was trying not to fidget. Beside the stage, and positioned at intervals behind the crowd of villagers, blue-uniformed ShinRa guards stood watching. On the stage itself, close behind the president and his family, Kit noticed three figures in plain suits: two men, one brown-haired and severe, one cheerful-looking with short blond hair and sunglasses, and a third who couldn't have been more than three or four years older than Kit, a slender, dark-eyed boy who looked as though he might have Wutaian blood. If the men in blue uniforms were the security guards Cal kept talking about, then who were these watchful, sombre-suited people?

The president gave a long speech about the importance of Mako and how he was proud to be presiding over 'the greatest leap forward in human history since the invention of the wheel', before declaring the reactor officially open and throwing the switch that brought the first electric power to Gongaga. The villagers applauded as a newly installed street lamp beside the village well flickered alight, and a huge television screen mounted above the platform came to life, showing the crowd images of the village square.

"Look – it's me!" shouted an excited boy, pointing at his picture, and the crowd erupted into movement as everyone started to jump and wave. The president waited, smiling benignly. When the noise died down Cal's father gave a short speech thanking ShinRa for 'bringing the future to Gongaga' and Hannah presented her flowers to the president's wife who accepted them with a smile and some quiet words. Kit noticed that the dark-suited boy stepped forward to take Rufus Shinra's hand while his mother was busy with the flowers. Rufus didn't even look round at the boy, taking his hand automatically with a confidence that suggested long familiarity.

The President and his family stayed to watch a traditional dance performed by some of the youngest school children, and Kit saw his old teacher Miss Thorne, red-faced with embarrassed pleasure, being thanked by Mrs. Shinra. Then the ceremony was over. Cal and his family joined the crowd in the square while tables were set up for the celebratory feast, and the Shinra family was escorted from the stage by the dark-suited trio and the security guards. The adult Shinras turned to wave at the crowd as they reached the helicopter, which had caused such a stir on its arrival. Moments later the helicopter took off, the squally wind from its rotors whipping the long grass into frenzied motion.

Cal reached Kit's side, his waistcoat already gone. "Wow!" he exclaimed, watching the helicopter retreat into white haze. "Wish we'd been allowed to look inside it!"

"Yeah," Kit agreed. "But they had all those guards. And those people in the suits –"

"They're called the Turks," Cal informed him, proud of his inside knowledge. One of them – Lex - the one with the yellow hair – came to our house to do a security check before we were allowed on the platform. He even inspected Hannah's flowers!"

"Why?"

"I don't know. He just said, 'Can't be too careful'. Maybe he was looking for bugs. You know – in case Mrs. Shinra got a caterpillar on her or something. He was all right though - funny. He called Hannah 'young lady' and he called me 'trouble', but in a nice way. Mum gave him some of her honey cakes for Rufus Shinra, and dad gave him some of the sloe gin for himself, and I think he liked that. Pop said they're bodyguards – to keep the president and his family safe."

"That's dumb. Why wouldn't they be safe?"

"Dunno. There're wild animals. Monsters out in the wilds. That huldercat Eli killed."

"Yeah, but – not in the village. No one's seem a huldercat for years."

"Like Lex said – can't be too careful, I guess. I want some of that stew before it all goes. Come on!"

It was only after the two boys had eaten their fill of goat stew, dumplings and honey cakes that Kit remembered their plan to ask one of the Shinra guards about Midgar, but when he looked around for one, he realised that they'd already left.

x

A month or so after the opening of the reactor, Kit's mother was called to another birth late at night. Kit went to fetch water from the well for her, because the new plumbing, with its electric pump, was still being installed. Cal's home already had electricity, as did the schoolhouse, but now that the Gongaga reactor was fully functional most of the work force had been moved on, whether back to the construction of Midgar, or to build new reactors, Kit didn't know. ShinRa had promised technical assistance to the village, and an electrician did turn up every so often, but he seemed to be very busy and difficult to reach, even on the mayor's new telephone.

Standing in the pool of light cast by the one street lamp ShinRa had installed before the opening ceremony, Kit hauled up water from the well and poured it into his bucket, suddenly remembering the last time he'd done this, on the night of Zack Fair's birth, and the way the cool, clean silver of the moonlight had played over the surface of the water. This Mako powered lamp was different, its bulb shedding a flat, greenish light that Kit wasn't entirely sure he liked, but which had the advantage of reliability over the moon. When he looked up, he realised that the lamp was too bright for him to see the stars.

Kit remembered his mother's words, some time after the ceremony, as she looked across at Cal's house with its illuminated windows. "Well, ShinRa's here now, for good or ill."

"But you use their medicine," he'd pointed out. "You said it saves lives!"

"It does," his mother had agreed, ruffling his hair. "I'd be a fool not to use it. Times change… and if I don't like all of the changes – well – that's the price of progress, I suppose."

_Not like the moonlight's going anywhere_, Kit thought, lugging the heavy bucket in the direction of Bathsheba Hope's house. _It will still be there, shining on the fields and the ponds, and up in the hills. I wonder whether you can see the moon from Midgar, or if there are too many lights?_


	3. Monsters

**Chapter Three**

**Monsters**

At first most people seemed to agree that the reactor coming to Gongaga was nothing but a blessing. It took nearly two years for all the houses to be properly connected to mains electricity and water, but once it was done, everyone found life much more comfortable. Cal's father was the first to install a television set, soon followed by several of the wealthier villagers, much to the envy of the children of poorer parents. Kit, who virtually lived at Cal's house anyway, when Cal wasn't at his, watched the daily news reports from Midgar on the mayor's television with interest, but his focus was always on the images of the city rather than the news stories themselves. Those tended to be rather repetitive accounts of ShinRa's expansion and the benefits it brought, and Kit was beginning to understand what his mother meant by ShinRa propaganda.

Only two people refused to sign up for ShinRa power. One was old Samson Flint, who lived in a tiny house on the hillside high above the village. When the brisk young woman from the power company arrived with her clipboard and her contract, Samson only smiled and shook his head, and told her, "I've managed fine without for the last seventy years, and I reckon I'll manage the rest of 'em, thanks all the same." The other was Anna Hale, who farmed land that bordered the reactor fence. When Mayor Leaman asked her why she hadn't signed up, letting her know, tactfully, that if it was a question of money, the village fund could help, she had sighed and explained, "No, it's not that. It's the land. Near the reactor – I can't grow anything like I used to. The corn's half the size it was – it's too dry for rice – even the grass goes yellow. And there's a strip at the edge where nothing will grow at all – bare earth. If it's the mako energy that's doing it, I want no part of that." Her neighbours scoffed, telling her that if she installed a pump for better irrigation her crops would improve, but she refused with the same notorious quiet stubbornness people said had led her to turn down three proposals of marriage to keep her mother's farm her own, and neither the ShinRa representative nor the other villagers could persuade her to change her mind.

No one could remember exactly when the monsters had started becoming a problem, but the threat was made clear just after Kit's fifteenth birthday, when one of the Payton boys was almost killed by a grand horn in the hills just outside the village. It was Kit's mother who saved him, using one of the ShinRa potions she kept on hand in case of problems during a difficult birth. Once the boy was out of danger Mayor Leaman called a meeting in the hall on the ground floor of his house. At first he shook his head when Kit and Cal tried to enter the room, but Cal was adamant. "Look, Pa, we're both fifteen now. If we wanted to we could up and leave and join ShinRa's SOLDIER programme. You know Jude Heart and Ben Gale went as soon as they started open recruiting, and Jude's brother Aaron is going next season, after the harvest."

"Cal – we are not talking about this now," his father hissed in a half-whisper."

"No, I know. But what I mean is, we're both old enough to hunt monsters. Kit's the best out of all of us with a katana, and I'm not bad. Let us stay."

"All right, all right. I suppose you have a point." Samuel Leaman stood back to let his son and Kit into the hall, hiding a sigh. Everyone said a ShinRa war with Wutai was looking inevitable, and Cal had been set on joining SOLDIER ever since he'd heard about the programme. If he were destined to end up fighting the Engetsu… well, practice against monsters would be better than no practice at all.

It was quickly agreed that the villagers would form a band of monster hunters, led by Eli Swift, with the aim of clearing the Gongaga area before more people were hurt. They would make regular patrols, starting the next morning, and respond at once if any monster sightings were reported. At the same time, the mayor would contact ShinRa asking for help with the problem.

After the meeting Cal was chatting to Kit excitedly about the following morning's patrol, and Kit was trying to sound equally thrilled, concealing his concern that if they actually found a monster and killed it the sight of blood might make him faint, when Hannah came running up to them, her face thundery. "Cal – tell Pa he has to let me go too! He's being stupid."

"Girls can't go," Cal said.

"Why not? I've trained with you all my life. I know what I'm doing."

"You're not strong enough."

"But I'm faster than you, and you know it. And I have more right to go, because I'm a year older than you are! Tell him, Kit!"

Kit hesitated. Hannah was right – she was at least as skilful as Cal – but something in Kit recoiled at the idea of her putting herself in danger. It was an uneasy feeling – unfamiliar and not entirely welcome. Before he could reply, Cal said, "There aren't any girls in SOLDIER." Hannah scowled at him. "How do you know? There's nothing to say there can't be."

"Yeah – but you have to be a minimum of five foot ten, and you'll never be that tall. And you have to be strong – and –"

"Okay, I get it. Shut up, Cal. And anyway, those are just stupid ShinRa rules. There were always women warriors in the old days, when we lived on the western plains and fought the Wutai invaders. What about Sheba Bane and Lady Damaris?"

Cal scoffed. "Those are just stories."

"You're such a liar, Cal! I suppose Lord Stormhammer and Ezra Light were just stories too?"

"No – but they're historical figures."

"So are the women! It says in the "West Wars" –

"I think Hannah should come," Kit interrupted, his sense of justice overriding his worries. Cal turned and stared at him. "What?"

"She's good. She can fight, and no one tracks better."

"Pa will never agree anyway."

"He will!" Hannah cried. "He will, if Master Swift backs me up. You'll see Caleb! I'm coming with you whether you like it or not! Thanks, Kit." She turned and headed towards Eli Swift's dojo. Cal frowned at Kit. "_Thanks, Kit!"_ he mocked. "Yeah – thanks a lot. What are you doing agreeing with her? You like her or something?"

"No!" exclaimed Kit, much too vehemently.

"You do! Oh man, I don't believe it! You've got a crush on my sister."

Kit wasn't entirely sure if that was the truth of it, but he couldn't deny that ever since he'd seen Hannah all dressed up for the reactor opening all those years ago he'd started to think about her differently. "Well?" he said. "So what if I have? You like that girl from the bakery – the tall one."

"What?" Cal asked, faking scorn, "Martha Right?"

"Is that her name? You see, you _do_ like her."

"She's okay." Cal glanced at Kit, suddenly looking embarrassed, dropping the pretence of indifference. "I was thinking of asking her to the harvest dance…"

"Were you? So – do you think I should I ask Hannah then?"

"Do you want to? I'm telling you, she's crazy."

"She's not – she's –"

"See! You must like her, sticking up for her like that. So ask her. Why not?"

"I might. It's still four months 'til harvest. Anyway, if we can't get the monsters under control there won't be much of a harvest to celebrate."

x

The Mayor listened to Eli Swift's arguments reluctantly, but was eventually persuaded to let Hannah go with the hunters by his wife, Esther, who said, "It's better if she learns to fight them in a group now rather than being ambushed like the Payton boy was. We should send the other girls to Eli, too. They should at least learn to handle weapons. They can't stay indoors all the time!"

The hunting party set off at dawn, trailed to the edge of the village by children who were too young to go, seven-year-old Zack Fair complaining the loudest. "I can kill monsters! Let me come! Master Swift – _please_!"

Eli put a firm hand on Zack's shoulder. "You'll be a really good fighter one day, Zachary, but you're not quite ready yet. Keep doing the exercises I showed you – build up your strength."

"I do! I do a hundred squats every morning and push-ups, and –"

"Good. Keep it up."

The other children wandered back into the village as the hunters made their way up into the hills, but Zack stood watching them until they were out of sight.

The party made a wide circuit with the village at its centre, sticking to the hills above the tree line, finding nothing but grass and a few wild goats. Hannah found the three-toed print of what must have been a large, lizard-like creature, and they followed its trail up into the higher hills before Eli decided to return to their circular patrol route. "Whatever it was, it's well away from the village for now," he said. "But it's big. Must be a monster. Look at the length of those claws." His eyes turned towards Gongaga and the reactor beyond. "Never used to be much in the way of monsters until they built _that_," he muttered.

"You think the reactor creates monsters?" Kit asked.

"Creates them, or attracts them, I don't know which. Could be a coincidence, of course, but lately I've been hearing a lot about monster attacks in Midgar…"

They had almost finished their patrol when the creatures attacked them silently from behind. Cal gave a cry as he was knocked to the ground by a huge green lizard with tusks as long as pokers and vicious claws. It was accompanied by two others, one of which fixed its flame-eyed gaze on Kit. He felt a strange tingling sensation which started somewhere in his chest and spread throughout his body, sending unpleasant icy tremors through his muscles. He tried to draw his katana and found that his movements had become clumsy and slow, as though he were wading through deep water.

"Don't look directly at them!" Eli cried. "They'll petrify you!"

"I'm not scared!" exclaimed Josh Lea, the village blacksmith, hefting his iron axe.

"No – they'll literally petrify," Eli explained, darting in to drag Cal clear and slashing at one of the beasts with his katana. "Turn you to stone! Attack fast!"

Kit reached the monster that had affected him so strangely and hacked at it with his katana. His aim was off and his limbs felt leaden, but the sharp blade cut deep nonetheless, and the creature gave a hideous shriek. Cal was back on his feet, fighting at Kit's side. The monster's claws sliced the air next to Kit's ear, but he managed to throw himself aside before the blow fell, rolling awkwardly, almost cutting himself on his own blade and nearly losing his glasses. Cal brought his katana down on the monster's neck and it crumpled to the ground, thick purple blood oozing from a fatal wound. A final blow from Cal's blade finished the creature, and as soon as it was dead Kit was released from its paralysing spell. He got to his feet, ready to take on one of the other creatures, but the fight was already over. Jude Heart's brother Aaron, Hannah, and Josh Lee stood over one mangled corpse, while Eli was already wiping his katana clean on the springy grass, having despatched his monster with one deep thrust to the chest followed by a clean decapitating cut before the three men with him had a chance to inflict any damage at all.

"Everyone all right?" Eli asked, sheathing his weapon and turning to survey the group.

They had escaped remarkably unscathed. Cal had two shallow claw marks across his left shoulder where the monster had initially struck him, but the blow had been glancing, meant to knock him down but not kill him. These monsters, whatever they were, seemed to like playing with their food.

"They were gagighandi, weren't they?" Hannah said. "Like the one in the story that turned Lord Stormhammer's horse, Afli, to stone?"

"Yes," Eli confirmed. "I've seen them once before, on the high grasslands in the west, and they appear in the old tales. But they haven't been sighted this far east in centuries. We're going to need more than good blades if there are a lot of these around. Used to be only Huldercats and the odd roaming grand horn we had to worry about. We'll need magic."

"My father has a mako fire crystal," Cal remembered. "He's never used it though. It's in the chest under the council table." He looked at Kit. "It contains a bit of natural materia, like your mom's healing crystal. Not as powerful as a real pure materia crystal – but those are so rare, we'd never get hold of one."

"ShinRa _makes_ materia spheres," Kit said. "Artificial materia, made from refined mako. Ma looked into getting some to help with work, but it cost too much. If we told them that the rector was bringing monsters, they might send us some."

"My father's already written asking for help," Cal replied. "We've heard nothing yet, but it hasn't been long."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Eli said, shaking his head. "We need to be able to deal with these creatures ourselves. I have a lightning crystal from Wutai. And there are other things we can use – old remedies."

"In the story Lord Stormhammer uses a golden needle which pierces the stone and frees Afli from the spell," Hannah remembered.

"Yeah – well I'd rather stick those things with a good katana than a _needle_," Cal scoffed.

Hannah rounded on her brother. "You don't use it on the monster! You use it on the person who's been petrified, dummy."

"How's that going to work? It's the opposite of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!"

"It might work," Kit said. "One of them got me – just now. I couldn't move properly – I could feel everything getting slower. A needle might have – I don't know – shocked me out of it somehow."

"In Wutai they use needles on pressure points," Eli said thoughtfully. "If the monster's spell works on the nervous system, it's possible that a needle in exactly the right place could break the spell. We'll need to research."

"Old wives' tales," muttered Cal.

"Lot of truth in old wives' tales," said Eli Swift. "Some of those old stories go all the way back to the Ancients. Come on, we'll finish the circuit and get back to the village. You all did well, but this is just the start of it. If three monsters like that are prowling around this close to Gongaga who knows what else is out there?"

As they continued walking, Kit said quietly to Cal, "Thanks. You know – for killing that monster. I couldn't move properly. You saved my life."

Cal grinned. "Nah. You wounded it first. I just finished it off. Anyway, you'll save me next time."

That night, lying in bed in his attic room, Kit replayed the fight in his head. Watching the monster die hadn't made him feel faint as he'd feared, although there had been a lot of blood. Perhaps it had been the force of the creature's petrification spell numbing his senses, or the adrenaline of battle, but he had scarcely noticed the carnage at the time. Remembering it afterwards made him feel a little queasy, but he was relieved that it seemed he'd be able to be some use to the village after all.


	4. Sephiroth

**Thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed this story. Katana may not be well known in the fandom, but I'm very fond of him. **

* * *

**Sephiroth**

Over the next three months the monster patrols became routine. Kit's skill with the katana grew, and he soon held the record for most monster kills. It had been Eli's idea to make a competition of it, since it was a necessary evil, and he'd been a little chagrined, but also proud of his pupil, on the day that he had to write Kit's name above his own on the chalkboard outside the dojo. Cal and Hannah were the fiercest rivals, constantly swapping positions in the middle of the board. Hannah's speciality was killing kimara bugs, darting in to pierce their soft underbellies when they reared to attack, whereas Cal's strength made him an efficient slayer of grand horns.

All of the monster hunters had become proficient at using 'softs' – gold needles Eli had managed to obtain from his former teacher in Wutai. They had taken a month to arrive, slowed by ShinRa checks on all Wutaian imports to the Eastern and Western Continents, but a few days of training had been enough to ensure that no one now risked permanent petrification from the many roaming gagighandi they fought on an almost daily basis. Kit proved especially good at finding the right pressure point quickly and had saved Cal's life on three separate occasions. The necessary point was just behind the ear, in the hollow behind the hinge of the jaw. Afterwards, Cal always pretended to complain about Kit sticking needles in him, and Kit would joke about leaving him to the monsters next time, both of them avoiding any acknowledgement of how terrifying the creeping paralysis of the creature's attacks could be.

Every evening after an encounter, Eli Swift wrote the day's kills on the board. The villagers would gather to discuss the results, and, while the adults bet money on the outcome of the next hunt, the children made their wagers in marbles, homemade slingshots and other treasures. Zack Fair had to be confined to the village after sneaking into the forest to fight flower prongs on his own with his father's hunting knife. He'd been caught after a larger example than usual hit him with a shower of bullet-like seeds, which had to be painfully extracted from his thigh. The next day Eli led an expedition into the forest and cleared a nest of the creatures. When he returned he told the Fairs that Zack had been very lucky that he'd only encountered immature monsters - a fully-grown one would certainly have killed him.

The villagers' luck against the monsters ran out two days before the Harvest Festival, when a grand horn caught Aaron Heart a massive blow to the head that killed him instantly. The festival had been intended to be a lower-key affair that usual in any case, owing to the exceptional poverty of the harvest, but now it was cancelled completely. The Mayor phoned Midgar to demand assistance, but only managed to speak to someone in public relations who made reassuring noises and told him that he would be contacted. Jude Heart, now a SOLDIER third class, returned to Gongaga for his brother's funeral, and went back to Midgar determined to appeal to the newly appointed director of SOLDIER, Lazard Deusericus, on behalf of the village.

On the evening after the funeral Kit's mother was quiet throughout their evening meal, but when Kit had cleared away the plates she said, "I have something for you. Come and sit down."

Kit sat on the old couch which was covered with the brightly patterned kilim his mother had woven before her wedding, watching as she opened the large painted marriage chest at the end of her bed and took out her best dress, the beaded scarf she'd worn on her wedding day, and a pile of blankets. Right at the bottom was something wrapped in an embroidered silk cloth decorated in an unfamiliar but very beautiful style – a design of falling leaves in autumn colours.

Laying the bundle on the rug at Kit's feet, Judith unfolded the material carefully, to reveal a katana in a plain wooden saya. She picked up the weapon and handed it to Kit. "It was your father's," she said, before he could speak. "We were lucky; he never had to use it. It's very old. I don't know how many generations back it goes, but it's been in the family for a long time. I've kept it oiled, but it will need new bindings. I bought blue-grey silk."

"Thank you! I know how to do that. Master Swift taught us. And I'll need to buy a new saya – this one's starting to crack. Eli sells them. I think I have enough gil."

Kit admired the pattern of leaves and falling rain on the Tsuba, before drawing the weapon from its wooden sheath. The undulating patterns in the steel told the story of the blade's forging, and of its high quality.

"It was made in Wutai," Judith said. "Its name is Murasame, which means 'village rain'. Your father said that it refers to a kind of cool rain that falls in the autumn in Wutai. He said that the rain comes in bursts - sometimes hard, sometimes light - and that the name means that the weapon should be used justly, falling hard on the wicked, but showing mercy where mercy is due.

"_Murasame_," repeated Kit. "It's a beautiful weapon. How did our family come to have a Wutaian blade?"

"I don't know the whole story," Judith replied, "but the blade is very old – I think from the time that our people were nomads on the western plains. We often fought against the Wutaian settlers – since way back, in the days of the Wutai Empire – but there were also peaceful times, and a lot of marriages took place between the two peoples."

"Hannah likes all the old stories," Kit said. He'd been thinking a lot about Cal's sister recently. He had finally plucked up the courage to ask her to the harvest dance only to find that another boy had asked her weeks earlier. She'd given him one of her quick, bright smiles though, and said, "Ask me sooner, next time."

Sometimes, on days when patrols seemed to go on forever and there were few monsters to kill, Hannah would tell stories to pass the time. Usually they were tales of women warriors from the 'West Wars', but there were older stories too. Kit looked at the katana Murasame thoughtfully, then over at his mother who was repacking her marriage chest. "Hannah said that the reason Gongagans nearly all have dark hair is because we have Wutaian blood, but that the blue eyes come from Lord Stormhammer, who came out of the north and had a thousand children."

"Hm. Well, old tales have a habit of exaggerating, but we could certainly do with someone like him around here at the moment," Judith said. "I've only attended two births all season. So many of the young men have been lured away to Midgar, but it's not only that. Not one of the recently married women is expecting. Anna Hale blames the mako reactor. I used to think she was mistaken, but after the bad harvest and all these monsters, I'm not so sure."

"But ShinRa have other mako reactors. There are eight in Midgar. Do they have these problems?"

"I don't know. But reactor or not, if things don't improve soon the village will be in serious trouble."

"Cal thinks ShinRa will send help," Kit replied. "He's expecting a whole platoon of SOLDIERs to turn up any day now."

"Let's hope he's right," Judith replied, her voice rather grim.

A week later a helicopter arrived without warning, landing right in the middle of the village square, the familiar red logo of the ShinRa Electric Power Company displayed boldly on its side. Kit joined the other villagers in the square, waiting silently to see who would emerge. He couldn't help but recall the excitement of the reactor opening and the helicopter that had brought the Shinra family to Gongaga for the ceremony. That memory made a sad contrast with today's gloomy gathering.

Once the helicopter's rotors were still and the engine had powered down, the cabin doors opened and two members of ShinRa security jumped down to the ground and stood flanking the doors. The blond Turk, Lex, who had checked Cal's house on the day of the reactor opening, stepped down from the helicopter, followed by a boy who looked to be about Kit's age wearing a dark red SOLDIER uniform. "Second Class," Cal whispered to Kit. "How can he be a Second Class when he's so young?"

The boy looked directly at Cal as though he'd heard him, although that was clearly impossible from such a distance. He appeared tall – possibly even taller than Kit, although he looked about the same age – and his expression was entirely neutral as his bright eyes scanned the square. A gust of wind caught his hair which was tied back in a high ponytail, and Kit saw that it was very long – longer than any of the village girls' – and an extraordinary silver colour.

When it became apparent that no one else was going to emerge from the helicopter, Cal's father and Eli Swift walked towards the Turk and the strange boy SOLDIER.

"Mayor Leaman," Lex said warmly, shaking Cal's father's hand. "On behalf of ShinRa, please allow me to express my condolences. And, personally, I'm very sorry. I've met Jude Heart. I understand Aaron had applied to SOLDIER?"

"Yes," Cal's father said. He glanced at the sliver-haired boy doubtfully. "We were hoping for some help with our monster problem. And the land around the reactor – the way the crops are failing."

"We have a team of scientists en route by road," Lex said. "They'll check the land around the reactor, just in case. But we think this is a climate issue. There have been poor crop yields around the planet this year." He turned to introduce the boy. "This is SOLDIER Second Class, Sephiroth. He will deal with the monster problem and destroy any nests he finds."

"No offence," said Eli Swift in his usual direct manner, "I'm sure the lad here is very skilled for his age, but I don't think you have any idea of the numbers of monsters we're facing."

Sephiroth looked at Eli, and Kit, watching, thought that something about the boy exuded disdain, although no sign of it appeared on his face, which remained impassive. "Grand horns, flower prongs, gagighandi and some sort of bugs, wasn't it?" Sephiroth said, and his voice was as expressionless as his face.

"Yes – huge numbers of them. Four months ago we were killing three or four a week; now it's dozens," Eli explained.

"I'd better get started then," Sephiroth said. From an unusual sheath on his back, he drew the longest, brightest sword Kit had ever seen and headed out of the village.

The mayor stared at Lex. "You're not going to let him go by himself?" he asked. "No matter how good he is – he can't be more than sixteen!"

"He's fourteen, but don't worry about him. Believe me, I'd only be in the way. We have a camera crew with us in the chopper and they'll be monitoring him. They have materia just in case – but its never been needed, to date. Sephiroth is – something of a work in progress. He's a rather special kind of SOLDIER. Besides ridding you of your monsters, this will be a test for him."

As Lex spoke, one of the two ShinRa guardsmen climbed back into the helicopter and closed the cabin door. Moments later the engine started and the rotors began to turn. The villagers watched, some with hands over their ears, all tensed against the wind, as the sleek black machine lifted off and hovered over the square for a moment before moving slowly in the direction Sephiroth had taken.

Cal appeared at Kit's elbow, Katana in hand. "Let's go," he said, breathless with excitement. "We need to follow that SOLDIER! I'm not missing this!"

Kit ran back home to collect his newly bound katana, and then rushed after Cal, catching up with him at the edge of the village. Other villagers were following too, keen to see what this boy SOLDIER could possibly achieve single-handedly. The Turk, Lex, and the remaining guardsman did nothing to dissuade them.

On the ridge of a hill to the west of Gongaga Kit, Cal and a dozen other villagers including Jacob Fair and a very excited Zack, watched Sephiroth killing monsters in the valley below. Above them hovered the ShinRa helicopter, a camera operator visible leaning out of the cabin, secured by a harness, filming Sephiroth's every move.

"That helicopter has guns," Kit said. "I wonder why they don't –"

"Look!" Cal exclaimed. "They don't need to!"

Kit fell silent as he followed Cal's gaze. Sephiroth moved in ways that should have been impossible. His blade cut through monsters as easily as a scythe cutting wheat. Slicing a grand horn so neatly in two that at first Kit thought he'd missed - until the top half of the monster fell to one side leaving the lower half fountaining blood - Sephiroth jumped cleanly over the carcass and the slain beast's companion, landing behind the second monster and decapitating it with a backhanded stroke without even taking the trouble of turning around.

On the ridge the villagers broke into spontaneous applause. Zack was jumping up and down, punching the air, and yelling, "Sephiroth!"

"Did you see that? Sephiroth didn't even _look_!" Cal cried. "How cool was that?"

Kit nodded, but his head was swimming. He'd grown used to ignoring blood in the midst of combat, but observing the carnage from a distance was different. He looked up at the helicopter instead, breathing deeply, until his momentary faintness passed. Fortunately Cal was too focussed on Sephiroth to notice his friend's discomfort. The SOLDIER was already on the move, making for the head of the valley.

"Where's he going?" Cal asked. Kit noticed the subtle tilt of Sephiroth's head as he paused and then resumed walking. "I think he heard something up there," Kit said.

"Over this noise?" Cal asked, glancing at the helicopter. "That's not possible!"

But it seemed Kit was right. At the top of the valley Sephiroth vanished into a small wooded area and a few seconds later a dozen huge kimara bugs scuttled out of the trees hissing wildly. Sephiroth dispatched them one after another, slicing through heads and carapaces with apparently effortless ease.

"How can he do that?" Cal wondered. "Those things are so hard, even a crossbow won't pierce them!"

"It's unbelievable," agreed Kit. "But why did he flush them out, if he can kill them that easily? He's performing for the camera."

"Well – wouldn't you? If you could do that? I would!"

Before Kit could answer, Sephiroth was off again, at a pace that ought to have been a hard sprint to judge from the amount of ground he covered, but which looked like an easy jog for him.

Throughout the morning Sephiroth created a widening spiral of bloody monster corpses around the village. He would detect the creatures, including a few types of monster unseen by the villagers before, with uncanny accuracy. Kit was sure that Sephiroth's hearing was better than any normal human's – perhaps he could _smell_ monsters too? Sephiroth always made sure that the monsters were in clear sight when he slew them, and once or twice Kit was certain that he was pretending to look for creatures when he already knew exactly where they were, to make sure that he had an audience of villagers before the kill. The interesting thing was that the young SOLDIER seemed to take no pleasure in his conquests, and although, to Kit's mind, he was clearly positioning his kills for the camera, his movements were all ruthlessly efficient and utterly devoid of unnecessary flourishes. It occurred to Kit that Sephiroth hadn't been showing off when he'd sliced off the grand horn's head without looking; the extra motion of turning his head had simply not been required.

Just before midday the helicopter landed in a fallow field on the outskirts of Okaga – a small village that was Gongaga's nearest neighbour to the west. Sephiroth wiped gore from his sword on the long grass and waited while the Gongagans were joined by curious villagers from Okaga. When the Okagan Mayor approached, the SOLDIER stated, "I'm Sephiroth, SOLDIER Second Class, from the ShinRa Electric Power Company. I've destroyed all the monsters in open country in a two-mile radius of Gongaga, and I'll do the same for your village this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll clear the forests of nests, which should stop the problem for a while."

The Mayor of Okaga was a tall, powerfully built man with a short blond beard and hard eyes. He looked Sephiroth up and down, and laughed. "_You_? On your own?"

"He's telling the truth!" Cal called from the crowd. "He's amazing! It's the power of SOLDIER!"

The Okagan mayor regarded Cal coolly. "And you are?"

"Cal – uh – Caleb Leaman. My father is mayor of Gongaga."

"Samuel Leaman's son is it? You seem quick to praise ShinRa's SOLDIERs when ShinRa's reactor brought the monsters here in the first place. And your father helped bring the reactor."

Before Cal could reply, Sephiroth spoke. "No. The reactors don't bring monsters. Our scientists have found no link."

"_Your_ scientists," said the mayor of Okaga, with heavy emphasis.

"You were keen enough to sign up for electricity," Cal pointed out.

"Once the reactor was here. But whatever ShinRa says, something's brought the monsters here. And anyway, the power goes down half the time. Last week a dragon took out a pylon and the whole village went dark."

Sephiroth looked at him with something like interest. "A dragon? Where?"

The mayor gestured towards the hills to the north. "Two miles that way. But you'll never find it now."

"I'll find it." Sephiroth set off more quickly now, the helicopter following. The crowd attempted to follow, but only the fittest – a few Okagans, including the mayor, and the members of Gongaga's monster patrol – managed to keep up. Sephiroth had vanished over a low hill, but the hovering helicopter showed them the way.

Once again Sephiroth waited for a crowd to gather, standing half way up the side of a steep valley containing only a few thorny trees and short, springy grass, cropped by sheep and goats. There was no sign of a dragon, but the bleached bones of several animals littered the slope. When the assembled villagers had been given time to catch their breath, Sephiroth climbed up towards a thicket of thorn bushes and disappeared behind it. A few minutes later there was a terrifying roar and the whole thicket burst into flame as a huge green dragon lumbered out of a cave that had been concealed by the bushes, spread leathery reddish wings, and took to the air. Sephiroth followed it, bursting through the flames in a leap that was almost flight, landing on the creature's back, and slicing off its head with a single, smooth backhanded stroke of his glittering sword. Sickeningly, the headless monster continued to fly briefly. Sephiroth jumped aside, landing with supernatural grace and lightness as the body of the beast crashed to the ground. Kit watched Sephiroth to distract himself from the bloody remains of the dragon. Around him, villagers cheered and Cal exclaimed, "I want to be able to do that!"

For the first time that day Sephiroth smiled. Kit glanced at Cal, but Cal was entirely focussed on the SOLDIER. Hannah was applauding, little Zack, who had kept up despite his age, was whooping wildly, and even the mayor of Okaga looked impressed.

"I wonder what they do to them," Kit said.

Cal looked at him. "What?"

"What do they do to them – the SOLDIERS – to make them like that? It's not – human."

"Training!" Cal said. "The best training in the world."

"Training that makes you nearly _fly_?" Kit asked. "_Training_ that makes your eyes glow like that?"

"Yes!" Cal laughed. "You know all the stories Eli Swift tells about what Wutai ninjas can do? This is like that – only true!"

"It can't only be training."

"Well whatever it is, I want it. Don't you?"

"I –"

"If Aaron Heart had been SOLDIER he'd still be alive. We can go to Midgar and train, and then we'll be able to keep the whole area free of monsters!"

"But if the reactor is causing the monsters –"

"It's not! You heard Sephiroth."

"Even if we were SOLDIER we wouldn't be sent back here. Everyone says there's going to be a war with Wutai," Kit pointed out.

"And how long will that last – with SOLDIERs like Sephiroth? If old Godo in Wutai sees the film they've been making of what Sephiroth can do, he'll probably surrender before the war even starts!"

"Yes – well maybe that's what the cameras are for," said Kit. "But I don't really see why Wutai _has_ to have a reactor. Not if they don't want one."

"What's up with you?" Cal asked, sounding almost angry. "You sound like old man Flint up in the hills, or Anna Hale, going on all doom and gloom. This is the future! The reactors make the world better, and Godo is sitting on one of the world's most valuable mako sites, refusing to share. And even if the reactors did cause monsters – which they _don't_ - we can become SOLDIERs and kill any that turn up."

Hannah had been listening, and said, "I don't really see why Wutai has to have a reactor, either. But you're right, too Cal. Mako is the future. And – you have to agree, Kit – Sephiroth is just – _amazing_!"

"Oooh!" Cal teased, "Someone has a crush on Sephiroth!"

"Yeah," Hannah retorted, "_You_."

Kit said nothing, but privately he thought they were both right about that.


End file.
